Strumming is not my friend

Of all the things that seem to mess me up with uke (other than quick changing to a D7), strumming seems to get me the most no matter how much I practice.

I can keep rhythm but it's like there's no depth perception and seem to get a round robin of decent strums, fingernail hitting the neck and catching air.

Straight down strumming doesn't seem to be an issue but combined with up-strums always seems to screw up. I've also tried strumming while looking and doing it by feel, no luck.

Any tips on how to change this? Because practice seems to make no difference and it's quite limiting.

I try to strum with a wrist movement combined with an index finger extention. I learned on this video.
http://www.playukulelebyear.com/26-basic-ukulele-lessons/26-basic-ukulele-lessons-5-the-basic-strum/

Also found some improvement with this thread. Your nail is just as important as the wood and strings.
http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?72279-Fingernail-filing

also practice easier strums first and strum slowly. Add speed and chord changes later.

I have been playing for almost a month and still have issues with hitting the uke with my finger. No scratches yet though.

best of luck to you.

I found whatever strum you are trying, is to go really slow then speed up gradually, and try and strum where the neck meets the body so on a downstroke your finger doesn't hit body it will naturally go over neck then bring finger up over strings,

......and on your D7 if you can form a D practice just practice putting your finger on C from D which will give you D7

I'm going to tackle the easy problem:

Put your fingers on the G and E strings at the second fret. This is another D7 and allows for fast chord changes. It has a slightly different sound than the one you're using. In some songs this D7 can even be used as a substitute for D...

....Do you hold your strumming finger straight out and relaxed ?....if so then you are more likely to slap the top of the uke ...put a little crook into the finger and just hold the right hand a little ...tiny ...teeny tiny bit more rigidly and use slightly less up and down movement....you only need to clear the strings ...not the whole instrument....maybe later when you want to fan ,roll and other exotic strokes............it's difficult to picture from words ...


Make a loose fist...thumb over the pointing fore finger ...slip the fore finger out....put thumb into gap left on top of middle finger ........does not leave much more than a knuckles worth of fore finger....keep right elbow tucked into the side of body and grip uke loosely with - fore arm......try that ........it should stop you hitting the top and sometimes and more painfully the bottom of the uke.......it also allows you to pop the thumb out and double stroke and you can just flick out your three fingers to brush stroke .........but try it ....I ain't promising anything.....but it may help.

Theses may help -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYzf6cFSD9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58HRBAHREgg

There are many tutorials on YouTube. Just search ukulele how to strum, or strumming. While it is a basic beginner's skill, it still requires practice to do it well. Insure you are not using poor technique. Another thing that makes learning to strum smoothly difficult for beginners is playing too fast for their skill level. You have to master it slowly first. When you do, speed will come naturally.

I've been playing the uke for just about 2 months. I've found that a relaxed wrist, and proceeding slowly works best. My speed is secondary to developing a good motion. (No brilliant insights here). What I do want to say, is, what a community UU is. The sharing of knowledge, the support, is first-rate. So glad I joined.

Peterjens said:

Theses may help -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYzf6cFSD9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58HRBAHREgg

Click to expand...

Those are both good videos. And you can search YouTube for other videos that demonstrate basic strums until you find the strumming technique that works for you. For example, some people prefer to strum down with the nail and up with the pad of the finger.

Slow things way down. There is a speed at which you can strum cleanly, and you need to find it. It will seem ridiculously slow, too slow to play a song, but that's OK. Once you can strum cleanly at a very slow speed, you can gradually speed up a little bit at a time. Strumming cleanly is more important than speed at this point--if you can't strum cleanly at a slow speed, speeding the strum up won't help.

If you can't find a slow speed at which you can strum cleanly, you might consider taking a lesson or two.

This "go slow" approach applies to changing chords as well. Practice at the speed of no mistakes, then gradually speed up.

as has been mentioned before in this post, start slowly, gradually increase your speed until you are up to the correct tempo, when I first started to play the uke I concentrated on using different strumming techniques and to be honest it was a nightmare, then I discovered that all you need to do is develop the rhythm of the song you are learning, since developing the rhythm I have not looked back, so to break it down
1 start slowly
2 gradually increase
3 feel the beat of the song
4 develop the rhythm
5 bring it up to the tempo that the song is played at

you won't learn this overnight, as with all musical instruments it takes practice, practice and more practice, one day you will turn around and wonder what all the fuss was about, good luck